Sharp's 9225H brings the flip-open QWERTY action to Softbank

Not that we haven't seen relatively ho hum handsets get cracked open to reveal their sunny side (and full QWERTY keyboard) before, but Sharp's newly unveiled 9225H does more than just look pretty in two positions. Unwrapped at CEATEC 2008, the Softbank-destined mobile packed a 3.5-inch VGA screen internally, an inbuilt 1seg TV tuner, multimedia player, e-mail functionality, 2-megapixel camera and a microSDHC slot for loading up additional Iron & Wine tunes. There's no mention of a price, but feel free to head to the read link if you're in search of more images.

[Thanks, Mark]

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 12th 2008 8:33PM]

hmmm, it looks identical to Sharp's 922sh which has been available for over a year and shares the same specs. I think the report from aving is wrong.

http://mb.softbank.jp/mb/en/product/3g/922sh/index.html

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 12th 2008 9:34PM]

Softbank's device numbering follows rules like Series(7,8,9,X)-Model(0,1,2,3)-Model(0,1,2,3)-Manufacturer(SHarp,Toshiba,Panasonic,HTc,NoKia...) . 922SH means 9 series(higher-end) model 22, supplied from Sharp. All smartphones are in X series like X02HT. Though has exceptional 705NK named before Vodafone leaves country, so 9 implies Keitai(no native apps).
This manner was ruled after NTT docomo's mainstream i-mode numbering, which comes in Manufacturer-Series(7,8,9)-Series(0-9?)-Generation(1-6)-i-Option form, for example P906i,SH903iTV or F884i(Raku-raku-phone IV). Smartphones are numbered Manufacturer-1-Generations-00, such as F1100 or M1000. Manufacturer code may differ in carriers.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 12th 2008 9:48PM]

I hate to tell you but AVING has made a huge stuff-up here. This phone is called the 922SH, not the 9225H. It was announced way back in January and went on sale in March in Japan. It's not new and it certainly didn't have its first showing at CEATEC. It might pay to cross check news with several sites before taking the word of one. Regards, Albert

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 13th 2008 7:18AM]

Agreed, I walked by one not an hour ago at the SoftBank store in the mall and almost did a double-take! Thanks for the clarification!

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 13th 2008 8:06AM]

:o!

Engadget never makes mistakes! This is ooooold!

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 14th 2008 11:24AM]

As an aside I'd love to see this get a US release as it is. Problem? Sharp only makes Sidekicks here; I'd hate for them to just slap the Sidekick software on it and call it the Sidekick 4 or something.